Thursday, March 5, 2009

The Taliban and its allied groups have killed at least five members of the Shia Muslim community in the troubled southwestern Pakistan.

The men were killed when Taliban-linked militants opened fire on their car in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's restive southwestern Balochistan province on Tuesday, a Press TV correspondent reported..

The victims belonged to the Shia Hazara community and were traveling to the city in a van when they were targeted.

The gunmen then fled the scene and all of the passengers on the van died, police said.

Quetta has witnessed several instances of violence directed against the Hazara community in recent months.

Earlier on Friday outside the town of Hangu in the troubled North West Frontier Province, Taliban insurgents ambushed a minibus carrying Shia children to school, killing three and injuring several others.

Some reports have cited grave human rights abuses against Shias in the northwestern Pakistani city of Parachinar.

Taliban-linked militants in the towns of Parachinar and Hangu and other areas in the Kurram tribal region have killed hundreds of community members during the last six months, Pakistani media reports have revealed.

Taliban's influence is also rapidly increasing its grip on the major cities and even the so-called settled areas in the country.

The violence continues despite an order issued by Pakistani Interior Chief Rehman Malik that demands the protection of the Shia minority.

Shia sources say they make up one-third of Pakistan's population of nearly 160 million. Since the 1980s, thousands of people have been killed in violence-related incidents in Pakistan.